Near the intersection of Campbell Avenue and Prince Road, red and white PADI flags flap in the air like a fish out of water, flying above the dirt, dry bushes and cacti near the intersection.

The striped flags of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors mark the location of one of Tucson’s two diving stores, appropriately named The Dive Shop. 

Surrounded by a vast, dry desert, The Dive Shop and its competitor, 72 Aquatics, have bolstered a thriving community of marine lovers, nature admirers and Tucsonans who just like getting their toes wet.

To keep the local diving community afloat, the stores provide gear, training and transportation to local diving hotspots at a reduced cost. 

The Dive Shop

Cluttered with a wide variety of diving gear, memorabilia and other knick-knacks, The Dive Shop, located at 1702 E. Prince Road, was founded by David Rabb in 1982. Since 2014, University of Arizona alum Adrian Cardoni has been managing it. 

He discovered his love of scuba diving after taking a UA marine biology course. The sport allowed him to further explore what the oceans have to offer, he said. 

After receiving his certification in 1998 as an undergraduate, he worked as a diver tasked with collecting algae from the UA’s Biosphere 2.

Now, he spreads his love for diving and marine life with Tucsonans as a dive instructor and manager of the Dive Shop.

Tucson’s landlocked status isn’t a barrier to diving, Cardoni said. 

“A lot of people are like, ‘You dive in the desert? Where is there to go?’” he said. “Well there’s Mexico.”

Learning under water

The Sonoran beach town San Carlos is roughly a six hour drive from Tucson. 

The Dive Shop offers frequent three-night trips to the popular tourist destination, as well as other trips to diving hotspots like the Bahamas and British Virgin Islands. 

While excursions make for a great scuba training environment, instructors also use the time to share their knowledge and experiences.

Cardoni is often the resident expert for all things fishy.

“Everyone knows I’m the marine biologist on the trip, so they’re like, ‘What was that fish?’” he said. 

He also urges his customers to attend local wildlife presentations and remain respectful to wildlife while underwater, he said.

“We always encourage people to interact with animals in a responsible manner, teaching them not to go out and touch the animals and make the pufferfish puff,” he said 

Maintaining the ocean and marine wildlife is a common cause among staff, including instructor Linda Kurick, who has a background in speech-language pathology and special education. 

“Children are the future of our oceans,” she said, adding that she believes educating younger generations is an important part of fighting climate change, invasive species and other threats to marine life. 

Divers have a personal stake in conservation and cleaner oceans, she added.

The Dive Shop has been part of numerous beach clean-ups in Mexico and carries eco-friendly products like Nudi Wear swimwear, made out of recycled plastic, and Stream2Sea, a mineral sunscreen that doesn’t harm coral reefs. 

Training in Tucson

Though the funnest part of the job, diving trips account for a small part of the shop’s income. Training and gear sales keep the business profitable, Cardoni said. 

The shop offers a universally recognized PADI certification, allowing Tucson locals to get certified and purchase equipment before vacations to avoid extra fees on location. 

Steve Hall, who has been instructing at The Dive Shop for five years, got certified in Tucson before a business conference in the Bahamas. 

Diving has always been on his bucket list, he said, and after falling in love with the hobby, he decided the next step was to teach others.

“It’s amazing to introduce someone to this amazing world for the first time,” he said. “I’ve sat for 20 minutes in one spot. It’s like you’re in an aquarium.” 

One of his favorite moments was playing tug-of-war with an octopus, an animal he now refuses to eat given his emotional connection, he said.

A supportive rivalry

Located only a few miles away at 2951 N. Swan Road is Tucson’s other resident diving shop, 72 Aquatics. 

While the stores share the same customer base, largely consisting of families and retirees, their bond as a diving community comes before any competition, Hall said. 

“The shops work well together,” he said. “We’re competitors, but we’re divers first.”

Tobi Reitmayr, co-owner at 72 Aquatics, agrees.

“We are positive competitors,” he said. 

Reitmayr describes Cardoni as helpful, allowing 72 Aquatics access to the pools at The Dive Shop when the business didn’t have its own. 

“We all love breathing compressed air underwater,” Reitmayr said. “When a customer comes in asking, ‘Why should I take a class from you and not The Dive shop,’ I have a menu of things to recommend, but I will not bad mouth them because they are doing a good job too.”

Hailing from Germany, Reitmayr fell in love with scuba diving 23 years ago as the perfect activity for peacefully connecting with nature.

He began working at 72 Aquatics after moving to Tucson with his family in 2011. 

“It sounds contradictory,” he said of his business’s location in Tucson. “I sell snorkels here and outside we have the saguaros.” 

But while the city isn’t ideal for scuba diving in some ways, he said, it is one of the closest U.S. connections to the Gulf of California in Mexico, known for exceptional diving and marine biodiversity. 

Tucson is also home to the Desert Dolphins, one of the oldest scuba diving communities in the United States, established in 1959. 

The group, sponsored by both The Dive Shop and 72 Aquatics, is focused on uniting and expanding the diving community through outreach events, social activities and conservation efforts. 

Only a fraction of the ocean has been explored, Hall said, making scuba diving a chance to discover “one of the last frontiers on Earth.” 

He hopes more people in Tucson will join this community passionate about the vast, aquatic world of scuba. 

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.